So I was having an interesting conversation with my cousin Ashbash. Thats her real name. Some how we got to talking about puppies. So it made me think of some things that would make me made if I were a puppy. If I were a puppy:

• I wouldn’t let people touch my tail. In fact I’d probably put brass knuckles on it to really show them I didn’t like tail touching.
• I would never wear a dog sweater. Besides being some of the ugliest things ever made, they’re itchy against nice fur.
• I’d insist on going everywhere with my owner. It gets boring at home. People wonder why puppies chew up everything. My guess is they want to go on Road Trips to California. Sometimes it’s hard to express your inner feelings as a puppy, but thats what they want.
• I would probably lobby for another puppy. As much as the other pupster could annoy me, I’m sure the company would be better than not having any.

Thats what I’d want if I was a puppy.

Today’s meeting with a new client got me thinking about CMS (Content Management System). To this point all commercial sites I’ve released on a CMS have been on Joomla!. I do have some things that I don’t like about it. But when I look at all the things I love about it, they far out way the cons. This post isn’t about Joomla! or any other named CMS for that matter. This most recent client of mine is coming from a relationship with a designer where he/she kept the Client in the dark, didn’t tell them that CMS was even available… gouged them for what I would consider out dated mediocre non standards based design.

So they come to me asking for CMS features (ability to update their own content, interact with clients…). However I am quite aware that they do not want to fork out the money to recreate their website when they just did that a year ago. So this got me to thinking, is it always best practice to use a CMS for every website.

I would have to say 90% of the time it is best to use a CMS of some sort. Whether thats Wordpress, Drupal, Typo3, or Joomla, I would generally throw a CMS in there. Reason being, at some point your client will most likely ask for the ability to update his/her own website. The only instance I wouldn’t use a CMS would be if the project would not grow for a LONG time, or if the site were very graphic and flash heavy, such as a typical band, movie, or recording artist website. These types of sites usually push into the realm of art pieces anyways. A little different. I have seen sites that are 30 and 40 pages deep with no underlying CMS. I pity the man that has to update that site.

So, I purchased a nifty ultra service order from Best Buy with my laptop that I bought about a year ago now. So I thought, hey, my warranty protects me for a few years, drops, accidents whatever I’m set. Well I brought my computer into Best Buy because of dead USB ports. What do they tell me? We need to send it out for service. No problems here. That was over two weeks ago now. I just called them again tonight and they say, oh, well we don’t know how long it will take, we had to ship it to HP because we couldn’t repair it. Frustrating to say the least.

So I ask the Geek Squad technician if he has HP’s number and the service # I can refer to when I call HP. He gives all that to me but says that it’ll take me at least 2 hours to get through to HP people and that it’s not even worth trying. I’ve had great experience with direct HP support in the past. So I give a call, takes me 15 mins and I have a perfectly clear answer from HP support, my mother board is back ordered and will arrive in a day or so.

All this goes to show me that

1. Best Buy service is SLOW
2. Best Buy Geek Squad is LAZY (not willing to call HP for me)
3. Best Buy Geek Squad is incompetent or liars… one of the two.

Sure I have my warranty, but when it takes 3 weeks for a repair, yeah that pretty much stinketh. Last time I’ll trust Best Buy support.

Well it’s been a few days now since the upgraded version of the Grid 1.2 has been in place at Media Temple. Some things I have noticed so far:

• Much faster Account Center (WAY Faster!)
• Urchin stats is still quite slow
• Increased speed in mySQL connections
• One thing I have noticed in this regard though is that a page using MYSQL on first connection from a browser is a bit slower then requests from pages after the initial request. Not sure if that makes sense.
• No timeouts in mySQL connections
• Faster response times
• Download speeds are much faster via HTTP
• More organized Database Administration area in Account Center

Overall I am thrilled with the improvements in the grid system! One thing I’d like to see in the future is separate passwords for each database. In a collaborative environment it’s not always beneficial to let everyone have one password to access all the databases within the account.